Amway heir replacing dad’s Lake Michigan cottage with $3.6 million home next to Big Red

PARK TOWNSHIP, MI -- Amway heir David Van Andel is constructing a $3.6 million home on one of the most prominent building sites in West Michigan: a parcel overlooking Lake Michigan, the Big Red lighthouse and the Holland Channel.

The home is part of the historic Macatawa Park Cottagers' Association, which includes gingerbread-style wooden seasonal cottages dating back to the 1800s.

A longtime get-away for people from Chicago, the picturesque beach setting was where author L. Frank Baum summered and may have been the inspiration for his classic “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” published in 1900.

“We are glad he is going to stay in the neighborhood. I think he feels a tie to this place,” said Nicki Arendshorst, a longtime resident and candidate for Park Township Board of Trustees. “They have been fine neighbors."

Van Andel’s father Jay, the late Amway co-founder, over the years bought several parcels in the Macatawa Park area, including beachfront and the site of the former Lake Macatawa Hotel, an 1895 structure which a previous owner tore down in the 1950s.

The elder Van Andels didn’t do much to their cottage when they bought it, other than add a large deck that gave them waterfront views stretching from Lake Macatawa to Lake Michigan.

But their son’s new house already is generating a neighborhood buzz. The metal-frame tips of the multi-story home rise nearly as high as the surrounding treetops.

Van Andel, the CEO of the Grand Rapids-based Van Andel Institute, declined to discuss the project.

Construction signs can be seen by boats passing through the channel and from Holland State Park, which hugs the other side of the channel.

The structure, being built by Grand Rapids-based Scott Christopher Builders, will cost $3.6 million, according to a permit taken out with Park Township and obtained by MLive under the Freedom of Information Act.

In addition, the land at 637 Lakeside Road has a 2012 market value of $1.7 million, according to a township assessment.

There are no other details known about the home because Park Township won’t release the property’s building file beyond the price tag. Residents said there's plenty of speculation about the house, but no facts.

Township Manager Gerald “Jerry” Felix has closed the building file to the public, meaning the property’s details cannot be accessed. MLive Media Group is appealing that decision, an issue that the seven-member Township Board will take up on Oct. 11.

Macatawa Park residents say Dave and Carol Van Andel are considered good neighbors like his parents, Jay and Betty. He continues a tradition of funding July 4 fireworks over Lake Michigan, a display which rivals the city of Holland’s show over Lake Macatawa.

Van Andel also suspended construction of his new home during the summer so it didn’t disturb his neighbors’ enjoyment of the season.

A group of 200 Macatawa Park-area residents aren’t as happy with Van Andel’s sister Nan Van Andel’s separate $50 million plan to develop 40 residential units and a 80-slip marina on 3.8 acres that once housed the former Point West restaurant, and before that the Hotel Macatawa.

The group is fighting the township’s 2011 approval of the Point West 1 project in court, saying it is too dense for the neighborhood.